Surround suppression of contrast sensitivity with natural scene stimuli

B. Hansen; B. Richard; A. Johnson; D. Ellemberg

doi:10.1167/12.9.848

Surround suppression of contrast sensitivity with natural scene stimuli

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/12.9.848 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 848-848

Author(s):

B. Hansen ◽

B. Richard ◽

A. Johnson ◽

D. Ellemberg

Keyword(s):

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Natural Scene ◽

Surround Suppression

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The effect of spatial configuration on surround suppression of contrast sensitivity

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/6.3.4 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 4 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Yury Petrov ◽

Suzanne P. McKee

Keyword(s):

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Spatial Configuration ◽

Surround Suppression

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Surround Suppression and Recurrent Interactions V1-V2 for Natural Scene Boundary Detection

Image Segmentation ◽

10.5772/15912 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Francisco J. ◽

Miriam Anton-Rodriguez ◽

Isabel de la Torre-Diez ◽

Mario Martinez-Zarzuela ◽

David Gonzalez-Ortega ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Boundary Detection ◽

Natural Scene ◽

Surround Suppression

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Contrast sensitivity of MT receptive field centers and surrounds

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00165.2011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 106 (4) ◽

pp. 1888-1900 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

James M. G. Tsui ◽

Christopher C. Pack

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Surround Suppression ◽

Neuronal Responses ◽

Stimulus Contrast ◽

Area Mt ◽

Complex Center

Neurons throughout the visual system have receptive fields with both excitatory and suppressive components. The latter are responsible for a phenomenon known as surround suppression, in which responses decrease as a stimulus is extended beyond a certain size. Previous work has shown that surround suppression in the primary visual cortex depends strongly on stimulus contrast. Such complex center-surround interactions are thought to relate to a variety of functions, although little is known about how they affect responses in the extrastriate visual cortex. We have therefore examined the interaction of center and surround in the middle temporal (MT) area of the macaque ( Macaca mulatta) extrastriate cortex by recording neuronal responses to stimuli of different sizes and contrasts. Our findings indicate that surround suppression in MT is highly contrast dependent, with the strongest suppression emerging unexpectedly at intermediate stimulus contrasts. These results can be explained by a simple model that takes into account the nonlinear contrast sensitivity of the neurons that provide input to MT. The model also provides a qualitative link to previous reports of a topographic organization of area MT based on clusters of neurons with differing surround suppression strength. We show that this organization can be detected in the gamma-band local field potentials (LFPs) and that the model parameters can predict the contrast sensitivity of these LFP responses. Overall our results show that surround suppression in area MT is far more common than previously suspected, highlighting the potential functional importance of the accumulation of nonlinearities along the dorsal visual pathway.

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